LOS ANGELES – If someone wanted to make the argument that Darren Till is undeserving of a shot at the UFC’s welterweight belt, it wouldn’t be all that hard to do.

Till has jumped the line in front of interim champion Colby Covington and will fight reigning 170-pound king Tyron Woodley next month in Dallas, Texas at UFC 228.

Covington only won the interim belt in June when he beat Rafael dos Anjos, so it’s a little strange that he’s being stripped of his belt so quickly.

But the UFC needed a headliner for its big Texas card, and Till was ready, so he’s up.

Is he deserving? In Woodley’s eyes, that’s got nothing to do with it.

“Does anybody really deserve a title shot anymore? There’s no real rubric for if someone is going to get a title shot,” Woodley said. “If he’s in the top five, he’s putting on great fights and fans want to see him fight, then of course he deserves a title shot.”

That’s not exactly the most ringing endorsement of Till’s credentials, but there’s some truth to it.

Till only had four UFC fights to his name when he was pushed into a main event fight against Donald Cerrone last October, and after he torched the veteran he was given a hometown headlining fight against Stephen ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson.

He won both fights – although he missed weight against Thompson – and the UFC clearly believes he is a star-in the-making. Covington might have won an interim belt, but all that means is that he was solidified as the next-in-line.

When he declined to fight Woodley in September because he needed sinus surgery, he lost that place.

Till stepped up, and that’s good enough for Woodley.

“When I look at matchups, Darren Till may be the toughest matchup for me in the division,” Woodley said. “Everytime I face the toughest guy, I show up. When it was Carlos Condit, I showed up. When it was Robbie Lawler, I showed up.

“Colby Covington got there because he won a fight and was in a position to fight for (the belt). I didn’t make a fuss for the interim belt, I was fighting because he was next-in-line.”

The question now will be whether the UFC can sell Till as a legit threat to Woodley’s crown in the short month between Saturday night’s UFC 227 in Los Angeles and next month’s Dallas card.

Till oozes charisma and has a considerable size advantage over Woodley, but the Englishman has never actually fought on American soil under the UFC banner.

While everyone in the fight game thinks he’s got serious potential as a bankable star for the UFC, there’s an argument to be made that he hasn’t been properly introduced to the massive American MMA fanbase.

They’ll be meeting him next month, though, and he’ll be able to settle any arguments about whether or not he was deserving once and for all.

DEFENDING IT

With one or two exceptions, there may not be another champion in UFC history who has been treated like as much of an afterthought as Nicco Montano.

The New Mexico resident won the UFC’s women’s 125-pound championship last December when she beat Roxanne Modafferi after a season on The Ultimate Fighter reality show.

Even before the fight happened, though, most experts believed that Montano would only hold the belt until she was paired against an opponent who had already been competing in the UFC at either 115 pounds or 135 pounds.

There were lots of female fighters whose natural weight class was 125 pounds, after all, and they’d never had a division to compete.

One of those fighters was Valentina Shevchenko, who will challenge Montano for the flyweight title next month at UFC 228.

Pretty much everyone expects Shevchenko to win, but on Friday she refused to buy into that.

“In all my career, during 25 years, not one fight have I considered an easy fight,” Shevchenko said. “I’m not expecting an easy fight … I’m here for a good fight, and this is the fight for the belt.”

It wouldn’t make any sense for Shevchenko to come out and say she thought it would be straightforward for her to beat-up on Montano, but she did her best to seem convincing.

We’re not sure it worked, but credit to her for trying.

NOTES

After Saturday night, the UFC is going to be on a little bit of a hiatus. There won’t be any fights for the next two weekends, but the promotion will be back with a UFC Fight Night card on Aug. 25 that will feature a main event between Justin Gaethje and James Vick … Since he walked off stage and said he wasn’t sure whether he was actually going to fight Dustin Poirier, Nate Diaz has been on a tear on social media. He’s been picking fights with just about everybody, from teammates of Conor McGregor to guys like Rafael dos Anjos, who really have nothing to do with any of this … With UFC 227 fight week over, it’s worth saying: Last week’s Fight Night card in Calgary was significantly more interesting than this week’s card in L.A., despite the two title fights that ended the night.

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